How to keep score when less is more
In almost every sport on the planet, more is better – except golf.
In football, baseball, basketball, tennis, soccer, hockey, water polo, rugby, etc., the object is to score more points than your opponent. In golf, the way to win is to score less. Let me explain.
The game of golf consists of hitting a golf ball with a golf club and trying to get the ball to go in the hole. The player that can do that with the fewest amount of swings, called strokes, wins the round.
The game is broken up into 18 holes. Each hole is marked by a par, such as a par 3, par 4 or par 5. Par means the amount of strokes that it should take to reach the hole. So if a player is playing a par 5, and it takes them five strokes to get it in the hole, they made par for that hole.
If players score one stroke more than par, they get a bogey, which is not as good as a par. If, however, a player scores one stroke less than par – for example, a three on a par 4 – then he or she scores a birdie. Making birdies on a regular basis is what has made Tiger Woods a multi-millionaire.
Those are the three basic scores in golf. But there are more. If players have two more strokes than par, they receive a double-bogey, worse than a bogey, but better than a triple-bogey.
If a player somehow finds a stroke of luck and finishes a hole two strokes under par, then an eagle is received. When there is a hole-in-one on the PGA tour, about 99.9 percent of the time it is an eagle, meaning the player’s first shot went in on a par 3. In today’s world of long, big-hitters, most eagles will be found on par 5s.
Often in televised golf matches, the announcers will refer to the player’s score as five under or three over. This refers to the amount of strokes over par they are for their round.
Below is Tiger Woods’ score card from the 2005 PGA Championship. At the top is the hole number. Below that is the par for that hole, and below that is the actual score he got. The final line keeps track of how many strokes over par he was for the round.In golf, there might not be as many points or as much action, but golf can be more difficult than most other sports. So enjoy the world of fast-paced, action-filled sports, but remember, in the world of golf, less is more.